Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2018 submitted by the MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE OF UKRAINE

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Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.

The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.

Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization

The main document that determined the directions for the development of industrial design information activities in 2018 was the Work Plan of the State Enterprise "Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute" (Ukrpatent) which contained strategic directions "Patent information support in the sphere of intellectual property, provision of wide public with access to the information related to intellectual property rights acquisition" and "Implementation of modern information technology" which in particular include:

- comprehensive development of the main directions of information support in the sphere of intellectual property;

- introduction of the Twelfth Edition of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (LOC (12)) (Locarno Classification) translated into Ukrainian on January 1, 2019, creation of the corresponding information and reference system (IRS) which will provide free public access to the Classification through the Ukrpatent website;

- implementation of series of actions aimed at ensuring a continued free-of-charge acquisition of patent information resources of Ukraine with the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM;

- participation in the activities on unification and harmonization of the patent documentation of Ukraine, with due account of the global practice and in accordance with the international standards of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the current legislation of Ukraine.

The main actions in 2018 were aimed at:

- development of the technological automated system of record keeping for applications and titles of protection for industrial property rights (IPR);

- automation of the document workflow and provision of a comprehensive electronic information processing;

- development and implementation of freely accessible information resources for a wide range of public;

- development of the IT infrastructure;

- improving security of the information infrastructure;

- enhancing the software of the automated working station for the preparation and implementation of new versions and editions of the International Classification for Industrial Designs in Ukrainian translation (AWS LOC).

In addition, the development of industrial design information activities in 2018 (in terms of information technology) was carried out in accordance with the Concept of Information Technology Development at Ukrpatent in 2016-2018 and was carried out in the following main areas:

- automation of technological processes for the management of industrial design applications documents, application of paperless technology of the document management;

- integration of the electronic document management system with the Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS) software, providing internal and external electronic interaction;

- provision of electronic official publications on industrial designs and maintenance of the corresponding electronic state register;

- improvement of access to the registered industrial designs for their search by a wide range of users;

- provision of users with electronic services relating to industrial designs accessible through the Internet.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

In 2018, according to the planned tasks the works were started on the following projects:

1. Improvement of the General Electronic Document Management Automated System (GEDMAS) in terms of integration with the Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS).

Integration of the GEDMAS with the IDAS provides unique identification of the above-mentioned systems users and migration of electronic documents between the systems in automatic mode. At the end of 2018, the first step was completed which was to develop design decisions. The proposed design decision defines the requirements for upgrading the software modules for electronic records management to effect provisions of new regulatory acts and to expand service functions, including in the part of inter-system integration.

2. Creation of a customer online account for services provided by Ukrpatent.

A customer online account for services provided by Ukrpatent is designed for ordering services through the Internet, paying for services through the Internet, transfer of orders from the personal account to the specialists of Ukrpatent, etc.

3. Improvement of access to the registered industrial designs for their retrieval by a wide range of users was resolved through the development of an improved unified mechanism for the prompt implementation of procedures for the current updating of the Ukrpatent interactive databases available through the Internet.

4. In 2018, creation of the Special Information System of Ukrpatent (SIS) was started.

The purpose of creating the SIS is to provide access to information resources published pursuant to requirements of the national legislation. This is a search engine that has a universal search interface. With the help of the SIS, through one query one can perform a search within published applications and state registrations of all the IPR types.

The use of new technologies to implement a search engine will significantly reduce the time of information retrieval.

Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

The main types of industrial design information activities include support of examination of industrial design applications, the in-house database updating for the use in the examination body, publication of information about registered industrial designs in the official bulletin, creation and improvement of the interactive databases and information and reference systems for information support of a wide range of users via the Internet. Information on industrial designs is also published on optical carriers.

The document management for industrial design applications is carried out by means of the Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS) which has full functionality of the text processing and record keeping at all stages, from application filing to completing the examination and maintenance of the State Register of Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs.

An automated worksite of the Editorial Department is used to form the information arrays which are included to the publications in the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property".

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

Applications filed:

in 2017 – 2,480, in 2018 – 3,042,  i.e. 22.7 % more than in the previous year.

Patents granted:

in 2017 – 2,390, in 2018 – 2,297 i.e. 3.9 % decrease with respect to the previous year.

Over the course of 2018, 487 applications for industrial designs were filed with the use of the electronic application filing system (16 % of the total amount of the industrial design applications filed) making it more than twofold comparing to the previous year.

In comparison with the previous year, in 2018 the following areas experienced rapid changes: tools and devices (increase by 5.6 times), textile goods and garment accessories (+53.0%), agricultural goods for preparing food (increase by 2.3 times), packaging (-20.0%) and transport (-40.0%).

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

Annual Reports, Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design  Activities, statistical information:

https://ukrpatent.org/uk/articles/statistics

News of the Office on the issues related to the industrial designs:

http://www.me.gov.ua/ (Intellectual Property section)

https://ukrpatent.org

Information on the legislation related to the industrial designs

http://www.me.gov.ua/ (Intellectual Property section)

https://ukrpatent.org


Information on Intellectual Property Representatives (Patent Attorneys) providing services in the field of intellectual property rights protection

http://www.me.gov.ua/ (Intellectual Property section)


Since 2017, an integrated patent information resource the Open Datasets of the Ministry of Economic development and Trade of Ukraine has been in operation for searching in the datasets of the state registers of industrial property rights and the State Register of Intellectual Property Representatives (Patent Attorneys). This resource is accessible at http://opendata.uipv.org.

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

Information for users on different procedures and sources of information on industrial designs, in particular, information on the legislation in the sphere of industrial designs, services and Office activities related to the information on industrial designs, statistical information, etc. is published on the web-sites of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (http://www.me.gov.ua/) and Ukrpatent (https://ukrpatent.org/).

The list of patent information services, including paid services provided by Ukrpatent, in particular, by its Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion, is published on the websites of Ukrpatent and the said department (http://iii.ua/uk).

Information for applicants on filing applications is available on the websites of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (http://www.me.gov.ua/) and Ukrpatent (https://ukrpatent.org/).

For filing industrial design electronic applications the EAFS-2 electronic applications filing system (http://efiling.uipv.org) and the Electronic Interaction System of the Examining Authority (https://sev.ukrpatent.org/) are used. In addition to applications filing, the systems provide an opportunity for electronic exchange through personal accounts.

To work with the systems there is the Electronic Filing System User Guide developed as well as the information is provided on how to get an electronic digital signature (receiving electronic trust services):

http://www.uipv.org/ua/ACSK.html

https://ukrpatent.org/uk/articles/acsk-dogovory.

Access to the electronic filing system for industrial designs is available at http://efiling.uipv.org/.

Access to online publications containing information on industrial designs is provided through the websites of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (http://www.me.gov.ua/ ) and of Ukrpatent (https://ukrpatent.org/uk/articles/bases2).

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

All application materials for industrial designs irrespective of the way of their filing, namely in electronic form, on paper carriers, by e-mail, fax and other telecommunication networks, are entered automatically or after scanning and stored in the electronic document archive and used by technological systems in the processing of applications. Further on, all the procedures within the pendency of an application are performed with electronic copies of documents.

Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification

The International Classification for Industrial Designs,(Locarno Classification), Eleventh Edition (LOC (11)) translated into Ukrainian was used for classifying industrial designs.

For information support of the general public users the IRS "International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification)" for LOC (11) translated into Ukrainian was made accessible at the Ukrpatent website for free.

In 2018, the tasks were taken on aimed at testing the automated workstation for preparation and implementation of new versions and editions of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (AWS LOC) at the phase of its testing operation as well as enhancement of the software in the course of the production phase. As of the end of the year, the works were fully completed. The AWS LOC was put into pilot testing.

A software system operates within the Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS) for checking classification symbols. It includes classification guides and specialized software for checking the allotted classification symbols and reclassification.

Over the course of the second half of 2018  the work package was completed to provide implementation of the Twelfth Edition of the Locarno Classification (LOC (12)) translated into Ukrainian in the state system of intellectual property legal protection on January 1, 2019.

Among other tasks, the information and reference system for the Locarno Classification was created that fully meets the form and content of the official publication of the Classification on WIPO website.

Other activities

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

Information of the Office on industrial designs is provided by publication in printed sources of the intellectual property legal protection sphere, patent information products on optical carriers, free electronic databases (DB) and information and reference systems (IRS):

Information concerning industrial designs is published in Book 2 of the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" in the following sections: "Information on the Grant of Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs" (contains bibliographic data and images (set of images) of industrial designs (variants) in black-and-white), in the Indexes to this section and in the Notices section. Colour images of industrial designs (if any) are published in the appropriate section.

The Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" was issued twice a month – 24 issues of the bulletin were issued during 2018. The Annual Index to the Official Bulletin for the previous 2017 year was also published.


Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.

In the Notices section of the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" (printed and electronic publication), with the periodicity of its release, announcements are published in respect of industrial designs (to the extent provided by the respective applicable Law of Ukraine) which include information on changes in the data entered into the State Register of Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs, information on issue of duplicates of patents of Ukraine for industrial designs, information on modifications due to the correction of errors and other information relating to the registration of patents of Ukraine for industrial designs.

The said information is available at http://www.me.gov.ua/ and http://base.uipv.org/searchBul/.

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases

The list of information resources available to examiners is given in Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file.

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

For information support of a wide range of public, free access to the information concerning industrial designs is provided through the Ukpratent website: the list of databases and information and reference systems (IRS) is provided in the section "Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, their content (industrial design applications, titles of protection, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)".

Information about registered industrial designs is available as open data at http://opendata.uipv.org.

The Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM was distributed for free in the framework of updating patent collections of the specified organizations of Ukraine according to the Registries of free-of-charge distribution approved by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

External users can also purchase the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM equipped with a search system, the CD-ROM "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" (current data) and the Cumulative Optical DVD "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" containing information on all registered industrial designs in Ukraine from January 1993 to the date of the latest publication in the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property".

The access for external users to the Eleventh Edition of the International Classification of Industrial Designs (LOC (11)) translated into Ukrainian was provided through the website of Ukrpatent where the IRS "International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification)" for the Eleventh Edition of Locarno Classification is accessible free of charge.

Annual Reports of the Office (in Ukrainian and English), Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design Information Activities (in Ukrainian), the quarterly statistical review "Industrial Property in Figures. Performance indicators of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and the State Enterprise ‘Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute’" (the Internet publication "Industrial Property in Figures") are also accessible for free on the Ukrpatent website.

Information on services available to external users is provided in the first part of section 5 Promotion activities aimed to support users in access and efficient use of industrial designs information.

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Information concerning the legal status of the registered patents of Ukraine for industrial designs to the extent prescribed by the applicable Law of Ukraine is published in the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" in Notices section both on paper and in electronic form (the CD-ROM "Official Bulletin ‘Industrial Property’" and the DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin ‘Industrial Property’").

In addition, such information is provided in the IRS "Information on Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs Deemed to be Invalid or Expired" and (as an extra operational component) in the relevant section of the DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Industrial Property".

Other sources

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

The main software tool supporting procedures within the Office on applications and maintenance of the state archive of patents for industrial designs is the Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS). The whole cycle of the formation, approval, signing, transmission and registration of documents is carried out on the basis of the electronic technology. The automated control functions are implemented in the IDAS for processing industrial designs applications, selection of applications, administering users within the examination units.

The IDAS was put into operation in 2002. Since then, it has undergone three stages of modernization.

In 2018, Ukrpatent decided to stop funding aimed at upgrading and adapting the IDAS. In the second half of the year, actions were taken to analyze the current state of the system, to study the actual needs of different user categories, to define a concept, methodology for development and requirements for new services and functions of the new system.

Thus, during the second half of 2018, actions were taken to develop a package of project requirements for the creation of a complex automated system for processing applications for designations and industrial designs filed under the national registration procedure in accordance with the national legislation of Ukraine and in accordance with international agreements under the international registration procedure. The designing and implementation of the system is scheduled for 2019.

In 2018, work was continued on the automated workstation for preparation and implementation of new versions and editions of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (AWS LOC) translated into Ukrainian, intended for the automation of works related to translation, publication and implementation of new Ukrainian language versions/editions of the Locarno Classification into the technological processes of applications examination in the IDAS. The software allows to create versions/editions of the Locarno Classification in Ukrainian, to provide translation of changes and additions introduced by WIPO into Ukrainian, to perform scientific-and-terminological, scientific-and-technical editing, to improve the text of the Locarno Classification in Ukrainian and process additional informational materials (information files and taxonomy) intended to supplement the functionality of automated systems for the Locarno Classification, in particular text and illustration materials.

Particularly, the tasks were taken on aimed at testing the AWS LOC at the phase of its testing operation as well as enhancement of the software in the course of the production phase. Among other things, updating the form of data generated by the AWS LOC (in particular, when translating and editing new editions or versions of the Locarno Classification) was provided, and its adaptation to the official electronic publication of the Locarno Classification (LOCPUB). Further deployment of the AWS within Ukrpatent was carried out by installing it at user workstations.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

The server part is based on Hewlett-Packard (HP) server x86 platforms (DL380Gen10, DL380Gen8, DL380G7, DL380G5, DL360 Gen8).

Information storage models are  HP (3Par StoreServ 7200, MSA2050, MSA2040, P2000, MSA2324fc).

The Storage Area Network (SAN) is based on the HP SN3000B, HP SAN Switch 8/24.

The general network infrastructure is based on:

- Check Point 5600 NGTP device which contains the VPN and Firewall modules for Internet connection and provides control of access to the Internet sites and security of the Ukrpatent IT infrastructure from complex threats and harmful attacks (botnets, targeted attacks, APT attacks and zero day attacks);

- Barracuda Spam & Virus FireWall for mail server protection.

 - internal router (designed on the Unix server) to support the Ukrpatent local computer network.

The local computer network includes the set of HP Aruba 2930M, HP Procurve 2910al-24G, HP 2530-48, HP 2510-48 switches and is divided into sixteen virtual networks (Vlan).

The server infrastructure is completely virtualized. The Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 and VMware ESXi operating system is used on physical servers which allow to create and operate the productive virtual servers. The servers of virtualization are grouped into Hyper-V clusters which allow to organize high availability of the productive servers with the Microsoft Windows Server 2016, Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2, Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2 and CentOS 7 operating systems.

The MS SQL Server 2016, MS SQL Server 2014, MS SQL 2008R2, MS SQL 2005, PostgreSQL, MySQL are used as the databases management systems.

Domain structure of the Active Directory (AD) is designed to allow the centralized management of all formation resources, including users, computers, files, peripheral devices, access to the services, network resources, web-sites, databases, etc.

Multiple domain controllers are used to organize the fault-tolerant domain structure.

The WSUS server provides updating of the servers and client's computers operating systems.

The ESET anti-virus server provides centralized control of all anti-virus programs on the user computers, anti-virus databases updates, report generation on database updates and existing threats.

The Microsoft software product – System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), which ensures continuous data protection for reliable recovery of Windows servers, is used for data backup. The plan of upgrading all servers and services after a failure was adjusted.

Other Microsoft System Center 2012R2 products, namely Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is also used for virtualization management.

The activities on the IT infrastructure development, carried out over the reporting period, were aimed at building the fail-safe core of the computer network, increasing its bandwidth, security and manageability, replacing the obsolete components of a hardware part of infrastructure, consolidation and virtualization of the servers. The servers of virtualization are integrated into clusters, which ensure high availability of all systems.

In total, the corporate network consists of 650 personal computers, 25 physical and 60 virtual servers, 10 storages of information and various switching equipment.

For the information systems users the Internet connection is provided to search and browse information.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

For examination of industrial design applications the following in-house and external information sources are used:

- the database of international registrations of industrial designs. The information is downloaded to this database from the WIPO website.

- the CEDA database providing for storage of documents and their attributes in electronic form.

The in-house databases are updated in the course of processing applications and within maintenance of the respective State Register.

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

Information concerning international registrations of industrial designs is downloaded in batches once a day from the WIPO website and stored in the database of international registrations of industrial designs.

The Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS) database is replenished and updated in the course of examination, managing the workflow on agreements on rights transfer and license issue and maintaining the State Register by the IDAS users.

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

Other matters

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

In order to satisfy public needs for patent information in Ukraine necessary for studying and analysis in the process of creating, legal protection and use of IPRs, the Public Patent Documentation Collection (PPDC) functions within the structure of the Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion of Ukrpatent. The PPDC is the most comprehensive patent library in Ukraine available to the public (Intellectual Property Office Library).

International exchange, in particular, with foreign patent offices has long remained the main source of foreign industrial property documentation of the PPDC, including information on industrial designs. Such international cooperation allowed to accumulate a considerable amount of current and retrospective foreign patent documentation, in particular, Official Bulletins of numerous countries, primarily on optical carriers, with information on industrial designs. The PPDC also contains methodological, information and reference and periodical editions.

During 2018 the PPDC acquisition was in progress by current publications of the foreign offices official bulletins and the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM. As of December 31, 2018 the PPDC contained about 20,7 thousand copies of official bulletins with a sufficiently deep retrospective.

The PPDC visitors enjoy free access to its materials in the reading room. In 2018 the PPDC was attended by 252 users, 8 % of which were legal entities and 92 % – individuals.

Information on the contents of the PPDC and its quarterly updates was published in the Patent Information Files section on the website of Ukrpatent and its Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion (http://iii.ua/uk).

Proper storage of the PPDC documents to meet applicable requirements and guarantee their safety was ensured during 2018.

The PPDC is located on the premises of the Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion of Ukrpatent in three specially adapted and equipped areas (two depositories with a total area of 81 sq. m. and a reading room of 40 sq. m.). The PPDC is equipped with 10 up-to-date computers with appropriate licensed software, as well as scanners, printers and xerographic copying machines.

To enable users to access to the electronic patent information resources, such as the Digital Patent Library online, the Internet access based on Wi-Fi technology was provided for users’ convenience in addition to the traditional Internet access.

All necessary consultations and services, including on the PPDC basis, both on free-of-charge and commercial basis, including different types of information and documentation searches, were provided by the Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion of Ukrpatent.

In particular, the PPDC provided the following services in 2018:

- 12 consultations on drafting application materials for applications for industrial design registration;

- 231 consultations on the correctness of the application materials drafting, including 36 consultations on industrial designs patenting;

- 8 patent searches of industrial designs;

- 5 title (firm) searches as for information on industrial designs registered under the Hague System;

- 2295 title (firm) searches as for all IPRs, including industrial designs, upon requests of arbitration managers and liquidators of enterprises in default and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Free-of-charge consultations were provided on the most efficient ways to carry out information search, search on CD-ROMs and in the free remote databases of patent documentation via the Internet and consultations on the most common issues relating to the procedure of obtaining legal protection with further detection and cessation of unlawful use of industrial designs.

In April 2017 the WIPO Depository Library was open on the basis of the Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion of Ukrpatent with the free-of-charge access to the documents.

Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

The Ukrpatent website provides free access to:

- information on industrial designs published in Annual Reports, Annual Technical Reports of the Office on Industrial Design Information Activities, quarterly issues of the Internet publication "Industrial Property in Figures" (statistical information);

- the Methodological Recommendations on Certain Matters Relating to Industrial Design Applications Examination;

- WIPO Standards translated into Ukrainian (with no official status) primarily those that have the most practical value and deal with different IPR types including industrial designs (the WIPO Standards section);

- the List of Addresses of Foreign Databases Accessible Free of Charge on the Internet and the List of Scientific and Technical Databases and Reference Resources Accessible Free of Charge which are quarterly updated in the Hyperlinks section.

Periodicals, e.g. the scientific and practical magazine "Intellectual Property in Ukraine", which is distributed as a paper and electronic edition over the territory of Ukraine by subscription, publish articles (including by the specialists of the state system of intellectual property legal protection) on various matters, in particular relating to legal protection of industrial designs. The printed edition of the magazine is available for free at the PPDC of the Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion of Ukrpatent.

The list of articles, speeches, slide presentations, methodical recommendations and practical manuals on topical issues of intellectual property, prepared by specialists of Ukrpatent for the period from 2004 to 2018, is available on the website of Ukrpatent. A certain part of the documents is available in electronic form.

Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

Over the reporting year, with the purpose of updating patent collections of certain organizations of Ukraine (bodies of the national system of scientific and technical information, in particular the state and national libraries and universities, departments of which are entrusted with the appropriate patent information functions, including business innovative centres of universities) the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM was sent free of charge to the specified ones and some other organizations of Ukraine in accordance with the Registries of free-of-charge distribution approved by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

Significant attention was paid to the skills upgrading of experts of the state system of intellectual property legal protection.

In order to improve and update knowledge in the intellectual property sphere in accordance with the requirements of the professional qualification characteristics 28 specialists of Ukrpatent were directed to the Kyiv Institute of Intellectual Property and Law of the National University “Odessa Law Academy”  for getting the qualification level "Master" in the field of intellectual property. Examiners and other Ukrpatent specialists also improved knowledge of English.

April 24-25, 2018 in Ukraine, WIPO jointly with the Ministry of Economic development and Trade of Ukraine and Ukrpatent organized and held a training workshop on the creation of a network of Technology and Innovation Support Centers in Ukraine. The speakers at the seminar were Andrew Czajkowski, Head of WIPO Innovation and Technology Support Section, and Mussadiq Hussain, Program Officer, WIPO Innovation and Technology Support Section. Among the audience of the event were the Ukrainian intellectual property specialists: lawyers, patent attorneys, representatives of industrial enterprises, educational and research institutions from different regions of Ukraine.

November 21-23, 2018 the Ministry of Economic development and Trade of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine organized and held the Third International Forum “Innovation Market” which made a meeting place for innovators, inventors, manufacturers and vendors of leading innovative technologies, innovation experts, creators of startup projects, business representatives, investment and financial institutions representatives, consultants in the intellectual property sphere. In the exhibition area the stand of Ukrpatent was presented, which was attended by approximately 2.5 thousand visitors in the course of the event.

November 14-15, 2018, Ukrpatent organized and held the conference "Important Issues in the Context of Industrial Property Rights Acquisition, Protection and Commercialization". Within the framework of the event, the role of Ukrpatent as a component of innovative development of the state and the program included the topics relating to industrial designs. The audience of the conference was made by patent attorneys, lawyers, IP specialists, representatives of scientific-publishing and business circles of Ukraine. Among the raised issues were: the ongoing dialogue with applicants, peculiarities of filing, processing and conducting examination of applications, acquisition and protection of IPR, paperless technologies for cooperation between the applicant and the examination body, etc.

Over the course of 2018, to support educational activity and to popularize the intellectual property sphere Ukrpatent:

- arranged excursions to the Museum of Intellectual Property Legal Protection for IP specialists, postgraduate students, school and college students, participants of the official foreign delegations, patent attorneys of the USA, Peoples Republic of China, Georgia, Poland, the EU, Ukraine as well as individual visitors. The total number of visitors to the Museum in 2018 exceeded 300 persons;

- prepared and published articles and presentations e.g. "Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity" on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, on the website (section "Special Issue Materials about Prominent Personalities, Commemorative Dates and Events");

- published articles in the scientific and practical magazine "Intellectual Property in Ukraine".

Other activities

Detailed information on other activities of the state system of intellectual property legal protection is published on the Ukrpatent website, in particular, in the quarterly issues of the Internet publication "Industrial Property in Figures".

In 2018 the Department of Patent Information Services, Consultations and Innovation Activity Promotion of Ukrpatent ensured the functioning of the Industrial Property Internet Exchange which aims to promote domestic IPRs on the market, to encourage inventive and innovative activities, to increase the level of public awareness on the intellectual property significance, to inform the wide range of stakeholders.

The Industrial Property Internet Exchange is available at http://exchange.iii.ua/en.

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

The functions of patent documentation international exchange are performed by Ukrpatent, recognized in 2003 by the law as the Centre of International Exchange of Publications according to the Convention on International Exchange of Publications, adopted on December 3, 1958 by the UN General Conference on the matters of education, science and culture.

In 2018, in the framework of international exchange of patent documentation, Ukrpatent:

- received official bulletins from foreign patent offices containing, in particular, information on industrial designs;

- sent the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM containing information concerning industrial designs to 8 foreign patent offices;

- provided access to the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" via the FTP-server for the patent offices of Japan, Austria and for Rospatent.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

In 2018 the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and Ukrpatent representatives took part in the work of the various WIPO decision-making bodies as well as sessions and meetings of Committees and Working Groups, among which were the 39 th Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications, the 35th, 36th, 37th and 38th Sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.

Within the framework of international cooperation, Ukrpatent specialists participated (online) in the activities of three Task Forces of the Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS) on the development of new WIPO Standards and other CWS projects:

- Legal Status Task Force;

- Part 7 Task Force (Handbook on Industrial Property Information and Documentation);

- Public Access to Patent Information Task Force.

Assistance to developing countries

Other activities

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

One of the priority objectives of the examination body is to ensure effective functioning of the Quality Management System (QMS) of the examination procedure for industrial property rights applications introduced in 2012 at Ukrpatent (International Certificate No. 321012076 of October 17, 2012).

Certificate No. 321012076/1 concerning the QMS, received by Ukrpatent under the established procedure, was valid from November 19, 2015 to September 14, 2018.

In July 2018, an independent certification organization carried out the recertification audit for confirmation of the Ukrpatent QMS compliance with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 international standard.

Based on the results of the audit Ukrpatent was granted Certificate No. 321012076/2 of the Ukrpatent QMS complies with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 which is valid for the next three years – from September 15, 2018 till September 14, 2021.